Export and import diagrams

Export a Bonita Process Designer diagram to BPMN 2.0 XML, PNG, or JSON, or print it, and import an existing BPMN or JSON file with automatic element migration.

Bonita Process Designer lets you take diagrams out of the editor in several formats, and bring existing models back in. Export to BPMN 2.0 XML when you want to continue the work in Bonita Studio; export to PNG, or print, when you need a visual for documentation or sharing; export to JSON to save the raw diagram and re-import it into Bonita Process Designer later.

Export formats

Open a diagram in the editor and use the export menu in the toolbar to choose a format.

Format Use it for

BPMN 2.0 XML (.bpmn)

Hand the process off to Bonita Studio. The output is valid BPMN 2.0 XML, restricted to the elements Bonita Studio can import. Downloads as a .bpmn file.

PNG

A raster image of the whole diagram, suitable for slides or documents. You can choose a transparent or white background. Downloads as a .png file.

JSON

The raw diagram graph. Use it to save a diagram outside Bonita Process Designer and re-import it later — it is not an image, and it is not the format to hand to Bonita Studio. Downloads as a .json file.

Print

Open your browser’s print dialog. The diagram is scaled to fit the page with proper margins.

Export for Bonita Studio

The BPMN 2.0 XML export is designed to be imported into Bonita Studio. Only the elements that Bonita Studio supports are included in the output. Before you export, review Supported BPMN elements so the diagram you hand off contains only elements that survive the round trip.

If your diagram uses marketplace connectors, the bindings are written into the exported .bpmn as Bonita extension elements, so they travel with the file and survive a round trip back into Bonita Process Designer. Bonita Studio, however, currently ignores these custom bindings on import, so you reconfigure connectors and actor filters there. See Use marketplace connectors for the details.

Export produces a standards-compliant BPMN 2.0 file. Any element Bonita Process Designer draws but Bonita Studio does not recognise is simply omitted from the file rather than producing invalid XML.

Import a BPMN file

You can import an existing BPMN 2.0 XML file — or a JSON diagram you previously exported from Bonita Process Designer — into a diagram. Bonita Process Designer parses the file, renders it on the canvas, and automatically reconciles any elements that are not part of the supported set.

  1. Open or create a diagram.

  2. Choose Import from the editor and select a .bpmn (BPMN 2.0 XML) or .json file.

  3. The file is parsed and drawn on the canvas, which zooms to fit the imported content.

Element migration

Imported files often contain BPMN elements that Bonita Process Designer and Bonita Studio do not support. Rather than reject the file, Bonita Process Designer migrates these elements automatically:

  • Unsupported elements that have a close equivalent are converted (for example, a Manual Task becomes a Task, or a Complex Gateway becomes an Exclusive Gateway).

  • Elements with no equivalent are removed.

  • Elements left without their original container are moved to the top level (orphaned).

Every change is recorded in a migration log so nothing happens silently.

The migration log

When an import (or an AI generation) makes any change, Bonita Process Designer opens a migration log panel in the sidebar listing each affected element. For every entry you can see the element, the action taken, and the reason. Entries are colour-coded:

  • Converted — the element was replaced by a supported equivalent.

  • Removed — the element was dropped.

  • Orphaned — the element lost its container and was moved to the top level.

Click an entry to focus and select the corresponding element on the canvas, so you can fix or reposition it. As you review each item you can mark it as tackled; the panel keeps a count of pending versus tackled entries so you know when you have been through them all.

Element migration also runs when you generate a diagram with AI, because the generated model is imported the same way. Always check the migration log after a generation or an import.

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